UK investing has never been more popular, when looking for a good fund manager, look for their prefences on where they advise to invest and look at their past track records.

If you were smart enough to back a fund manager who invests in small British businesses or the Japanese stock market, the chances are that you made a lot of money in 2013.

These two areas of the global stock market were the best performers.

Even if you backed a fund manager who invests in small UK businesses and he or she produced merely average performance, you would have made a 35pc return on your investment. It’s a similar story for Japan funds, where the average manager has delivered a 25pc gain.

Investors with money in a the most popular types of fund, unit trusts and their close cousins, “Oeics”, made solid returns, but as highlighted earlier this month those savvy savers who bought investment trusts, another type of fund, fared even better.

Here we look at the 10 best performing funds and explain how they were able to beat stiff competition from the 1,500 others available to savers in Britain.

Top of the pile was the Legg Mason Japan Equity fund, managed by experienced Japanese investor Hideo Shiozumi. The fund is notorious for being either top or bottom of the league tables, thanks to the fund manager’s punchy investments. Unlike many of his peers Mr Shiozumi invests in small Japanese businesses, which have the potential to produce big returns but are also riskier investments.

Mr Shiozumi said one of the main drivers behind his strong performance in 2013 had been his investments in companies that benefit from Japan’s ageing society. The manager highlighted a nursing care home specialist, Message, and a healthcare consultant, Ship Healthcare, as his two best investments of the year.